


where we come alive

by bxnelight



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medical, Canon-Typical Violence, Don't Examine This Too Closely, F/F, I know, Minor Character Death, Nurse Maia, Pining, Witches, doctor Aline, doctor Helen, i'm sorry for the title, just think oooh what if my docs were witches in disguise hmmm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 08:40:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20206885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bxnelight/pseuds/bxnelight
Summary: au where some doctors had ulterior motives. valentine morgenstern targets a hospital, built upon a convergence of ley lines, and aline penhallow receives the message that she was to protect the hospital and its people as a witch of the downworld.(ft. battle heline, battle claia and a sprinkle of malec, a whole lot of pining and if you squint hard enough, a bit of enemy-to-lovers in it)





	where we come alive

**Author's Note:**

> tw for:  
\- minor character death (a victim of the battle and an unnamed child, a patient of Helen's)  
\- graphic depiction of violence throughout
> 
> hello loves this is my second most (first being nebula) self-indulgent fic yet. chose the location to be a hospital so i can conveniently use my workplace as a reference because heck i'm out of inspiration. this fic is filled with plot holes and ideas that go nowhere so read it with one eye closed and hopefully it will be just fine
> 
> this fic is part of the SH WLW bingo, by @shwlwficlibrary on twitter. i'm part of team blue, together with rudy (humansunshine on ao3/harryshumsbitch on twitter) and kristen (supersapphics on ao3/super_sapphics on twitter), and the prompts fulfilled here are "pining" and also "witches au".
> 
> i hope you like it and if you do, please yell at me on twitter @bxnelight!!
> 
> this work is unbeta-ed and all mistakes are my own. thank you though to my teammate kristen for advising me on the tags!!

_ “As wizards and witches of the Downworld, it’s your duty to protect and guard the mundane spaces assigned to your protection. You will get to live most days as a mundane, but when the time comes, you are expected to harness your gift, and fight alongside your fellow Downworlders.” _

–––––——

The doors of the emergency room swung open, and a doctor in maroon scrubs and a hospital-issued jacket ran out and towards the incoming team of emergency response personnel. Aline stepped out of the way, observing as the trauma team kicked into action. So this is it, the place that her Downworld handler flagged as a red hot target for the Circle. A mundane hospital that housed its usual league of overworked staff, but for Aline, the architecture of the building was alive with the electrical blue energy of the ley lines that sat underneath its infrastructure. Even though it wasn’t immediately obvious why she was asked to station herself here, Aline could see the vulnerability of this place falling to the Circle leaking out of every corner.

Aline passed her identification card to the administrative officer, keeping an eye on the inside of the trauma centre, and the organised chaos that they seem to perpetually be in. 

“Welcome to the Red River Hospital Dr Penhallow, you may wait in the meeting room for your attending.” The administrator handed her the ID which she clipped onto her belt loop, before making her way through the waiting room to the room the administrator was pointing her towards. 

She hadn’t gotten very long to settle herself down and aggressively practice her introductory speech before the door of the meeting room opened again, and the same doctor from before walked in.

“Dr Blackthorn. You’re Penhallow?” The doctor had her long blond hair tied into a french braid and bunned at the nape of her neck, her jet black Littmann hung around her neck, and her jacket now unzipped. She only looked up from the file in her hand to stinge a glance at Aline, before going back to reading notes. Rude, Aline thought. 

“Good afternoon, Dr Blackthorn. Yeah I’m Dr Penhallow. Dr. Aline Penhallow.” There was a moment of silence that followed in which Aline debated if she should break by beginning her very prepared speech on her Hunger To Learn and Passion For Patient Care.

Dr. Blackthorn made the choice for her when she simply beckoned her to follow, leading her on a tour of the trauma centre, curtly briefing her on each wing of the ward. She was given a quick introduction to the nurse team before the attending doctor sent her to change into her scrubs. 

Great. An attending who already hated her and looked one misstep away from plunging that fourteen blade in her pocket into Aline’s chest. 

\---------------

It took a full week of looking over her shoulders and familiarising herself with the workings of the hospital before she dared to use magic on her shifts. It started with little things, like closing a small wound with a wave of her hand, and then she let her magic seep beneath the skin and wrap itself around fractures. She let each patient drift off to sleep on a short breath of her sleeping spell, before letting her magic heal and protect them. She would emerge from their rooms from behind the curtains, sending a smile that has “Fuck yeah” written all over it to the nurse sitting behind the nurses’ station.

She discovered that Nurse Roberts was a witch of the Downworld completely by accident on the one occasion she reached into white coat pocket to take out her trauma shears but pulled out her wand instead, that glowed brightly the second she touched it. Maia Roberts was right by her side, banishing the wand back into her pocket with a snap of her fingers and replacing it with the shears in the next wave of her hand, sending a knowing but admonishing glare her way. 

They were both glad they found each other, since the Downworld rule of non-identification even to other witches and wizards meant they left a huge part of themselves hidden for the most part of their days. 

\------------------

“I swear to God she fucking hates me.” Aline laments, drawing her wand in small circles in the air with disinterest, lifting the soiled scrubs she had strewn all over the floor of the room several inches into the air, making the blood and god knows what other bodily fluids on it disintegrate into nothing. Maia sat in the bar stool in the corner, eating her fried rice and listening sympathetically to Aline’s complaints about her attending that never seemed to warm up to her.

“She’s not that bad.” Maia replied, her mouth full of rice. “If it makes you feel any better, she treats everyone like that.” 

Aline slams down the wand onto the table next to her, and began typing her notes furiously on the computer, letting out her frustration onto the innocent keyboard she was attacking. 

“You’ve got to admit she’s especially cold to me, and I wished she wouldn’t be because to be honest, she’s hot, smart and could probably fight a bear.” The spoonful of rice never makes it to Maia’s mouth. A smirk formed on her face, and she was suddenly extremely interested in their conversation. 

“Ah so you are so upset over this Dr Blackthorn ignoring you because you like her?” Maia asked, her food now forgotten, getting up and moving herself into Aline’s eyeline. 

“That, and the fact that I want to actually learn from the doctor that was supposed to be my mentor.” Aline paused, leaning back in her chair. “Yeah but mostly because I am stupid enough to like her. When she’s a mundane, and a really, really hot asshole.”

Maia let out a chuckle, shelving this information for later use, before magicking the bowl of food into her hands and finishing what’s left of it.

\------------------

5am was an otherwise ungodly hour to be this swarmed with work. _Why the fuck can’t these people stay out of harm’s way? _

Her team greeted her as she dragged her feet across the work room, and the new medical student walked right up to her with a steaming cup of coffee. It took Aline four long sips before she realised. 

“How did you know my order?” Aline asked.

“I don’t know, Dr Blackthorn gave me the order and paid for you, too. Soy vanilla latte with an extra shot, right?” 

There was a moment in which she blanked out at the thought of Dr Helen Blackthorn herself remembering her coffee order, before she nodded, and hid her surprise behind another long sip. 

Maybe Helen Blackthorn wasn’t a stone cold bitch after all. Aline found her in the lounge later that day, working quietly at the computer alone. 

“Thanks for the coffee. And remembering my order.” Dr Blackthorn looked up at the person speaking, before averting her eyes quickly back onto the computer. 

“Did I do something wrong? Why are you always so cold to me, Helen?” Aline sighed at the lack of response, giving up and grabbing her lunch bag out of her locker before turning to leave. 

“I’m sorry I’m this way,” Helen suddenly spoke up just as Aline was about to push the door open.

“I guess I’m just not friendly with new people. Just… know that there’s nothing wrong with you.”

\--------------

Aline was keying in her notes in her call room when a fiery piece of parchment blazed across the air in front of her. She caught it, logging off the computer immediately to give all her attention to the fire message. 

_“Clary Fairchild is the daughter of Circle leader, Valentine Morgenstern. It is known that she works at the Red River Hospital as a psychiatry consultant, and that she is unaware of her connection to the Downworld, or her blood ties to darker wizardry. Morgenstern is actively searching for his daughter, and on top of the hospital being built on a convergence of ley lines, it is now highly likely that its the Circle’s next target. Downworlders stationed at or near the place should stay alert and be prepared to protect the mundane population.”_

As she stood up to leave the room, her door opened, and Maia entered, the same burnt-edge parchment clutched in her hand.

\------------------

Every shift after they received that message was ignited with a spark of fear and anticipation of the worst. Maia had befriended the red-headed psychiatrist who seemed blissfully unaware of her parentage, and Maia found herself actually appreciating their friendship even though she had ulterior motives for it. Clary Fairchild was a force to be reckoned with, kind and loyal, with a personality of the colour red. It didn’t take long for Maia to decide that she was someone worth protecting at all costs, Downworld duties or not.

Despite what the message said, things in the hospital ran as smoothly as it did before, and there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary besides having Clary and her pathologist friend Isabelle join them for lunch everyday. 

For Aline, her duties as a doctor was as important as her duties as a Downworld witch. As closed off as Dr Blackthorn was, she couldn’t help but notice how softly she interacted with her pediatric patients, how gently she spoke to the elderly patients, and how she treated every single nurse with utmost respect and reverence. She was incredible at what she does, and almost every patient that came under her care either recovered quickly. Anytime there was a patient too sick to heal, Aline would watch as she clutched the patient’s hand in hers for a brief moment, before handing them off to the nurses to make them comfortable. 

Even with the magic that runs through Aline’s being, there were just some illnesses that Aline couldn’t heal, some wounds too deep to close. Whenever she saw Dr Blackthorn in so much grief over the loss of a patient, she couldn’t help but wish that there weren’t so many limitations to her magic, and hate that the powers that be who created this magic didn’t create the power to take away pain and suffering.  
She finds Dr Blackthorn on the roof of the hospital one day, watching the sun set over the horizon, hands holding onto a painting.

She walks over to her, quietly pulling out the chair opposite her and sitting down.

“That painting… the girl from the car accident?” Aline spoke in a low voice, trying not to disrupt the serenity of the space. 

Dr Blackthorn nodded, looking down at the messily painted house and sun on the piece of paper. She took a harsh inhale, closing her eyes for a second.

“We are doctors, but we can’t save everyone. You did everything you possibly could for her. There was nothing else you could’ve done.” Aline tried her best to search her heart for the things she would’ve wanted to hear in that situation, surprising herself with how much she needed to erase the hurt written all over Dr Blackthorn’s face. 

“But there is always something else to be done.” The other doctor laid the painting down on the table gingerly, as if it is a fragile fragment of a memory that she had to protect. She ran her thumb over the little figure of a dog in that painting, smiling faintly to herself. 

Even in her grief, there was something so beautifully gentle about her, like there was a whole other person underneath that Aline haven’t earned the right to meet yet. Beneath that stoic facade, Aline sees generosity, compassion and a heart that beats with the need to protect and heal. She sees love for her job, for every life she’s touched and possibly a dark smudge in her past that forced those walls up. Regardless, Aline knew that the Dr Blackthorn she’s worked with for the past few months was a lot more than just the strict, icy-cold exterior she made herself out to be. There was a tiny voice in her that wishes to peel back those layers and get to know the real Helen Blackthorn, but realistically she knew that as a witch, it was better not to get close to mundanes who would never understand the kind of life she lives. 

The two doctors sat in silence, the emotions that hung between them too deafening and heavy for conversation to be had. 

\--------------

The next few weeks passed without a single hitch. Aline and Maia were beginning to be convinced that the message had been a false alarm after all. 

They were having lunch in the lounge with Clary and Isabelle one day, when the air started to shift around them. It started with a tendril of energy flowing through that was almost too faint to notice, then the wafts of something burning began to grow stronger by the second. Aline and Maia gave each other a knowing look, before excusing themselves from the room. They stuck together, weaving in and out of hallways trying to assess the situation, or if there even is one. 

They came to the entrance of the emergency ward, where Aline stopped dead in her tracks. She grabbed Maia by the elbows, her eye-line aimed right at the light grey swirl of smoky magic rising from a convergence on the ground. There were mundanes everywhere, all unaware of the danger slowly creeping up around them. 

“I’ll go find Clary and keep her safe. You got this?” Maia asked, one hand already in her pocket, clutched onto her wand. 

Aline nodded sharply, and reached into her own pocket for her wand. She watched as Maia walked away, quickly but not enough to raise too much panic. 

It didn’t take more than a few seconds for the grey fumes to materialise, and several shapeless figures that seemed to hover in the wind took form. It was obvious that they became visible to the mundane eye now, as mundanes started shouting and running in all directions in panic and confusion. 

It was like flipping a switch. Aline wasn’t a doctor now, she was a witch of the Downworld, born of magic and the instinct to fight and protect. 

Aline directed her wand at the emergency waiting room, and walls of swirling red magic rose in its perimeters, before solidifying into what looked like nothing but were reinforced, translucent walls that sheltered the mundanes within. There was a single entrance at one of its walls, the tell tale sign of it being there were the warped fabric of space separating the safety of its interior from the dark magic-infested exterior.

“Get in there, go!” She shouted, directing the mundanes into the safe confines of the shelter she had just conjured up. In there, the space seemed to have been multiplied, and what was a waiting room was now a large room, quickly filling up with people fleeing for their lives. Outside, chaos reigned as the creatures of dark magic spread out to widen their attack radius, engulfing the people who failed to hide with its dark grey swirls of magic, leaving them to fall to the floor after harvesting their life force. 

Aline struggled to take down every single one of them, but it seemed like they kept coming. Around her, she saw a few colleagues, whom she previously thought were just that, take out their own wands and fight the creatures with her. Silently, she prayed that Maia had things under control where she was, and she also had other witches and wizards revealing themselves to ally with her to protect Clary Fairchild and the other mundanes. 

Two other wizards, Dr Bane and Dr Lightwood, who Aline previously thought were just mundanes, stood by the entrance of the shelter, banishing the creatures that attempted to enter. Aline ran across the ER, wand aimed at the few creatures that somehow escaped the other wizards, and banished them with a quick utter of a spell. She picked up the mundane patient lying motionless on the bed, and ran back to the shelter where she left him in the care of another doctor. 

When she stepped foot outside again, she sees something that made her heart stop beating for a moment. Three creatures hovered in the air outside one of the ER rooms, and stood there was Dr Helen Blackthorn, hands still on the door handle and back half-turned away from the imminent danger. 

Without thinking Aline rushed forward with her wand raised, but even before the spell could leave her lips, she saw as Helen flipped up the tail of her white coat, grabbing something and before she knew it, the creatures disintegrated into a cloud of black ash. 

Aline could only look on with her mouth agape as the doctor she previously thought of as nothing more than mundane made her way across the southern wing of the ER, flicking her light-brown wand through the air and sending the hordes of creatures of dark magic disappearing into its ashy remains. The way her magic left her wand was odd, with the way the tendrils zig-zagged in an angry flash of red, white and black, and it took another few seconds for Aline to recognise it as dark magic too. 

Aline reacted. She jumped over the counters and across the ward, stopping right in front of Helen Blackthorn.

“Who do you fight for?” She asked, her wand raised and pointing at Helen. Helen couldn’t hide her shock at seeing the wand in Aline’s hand, the energy of the magic of Downworld origin radiating around her, almost tangible. 

“I may be born of dark magic but I fight alongside you.” That was all the other witch said before she cast a spell at the creature coming towards them both, sending a glance at Aline that hoped to convey the message of trust and alliance. 

Aline bit her lip, choosing in that moment to trust her, and together they fought off the incoming creatures, shooting magic from their wands with an ease that came innately to them. 

Helen’s dark magic sent the air around her smoking with a spark of turbulent power, and her attacks were deadly and precise. She shoved her wand back into her pocket, running towards a corner and picking up a mundane girl that was crumpled against the wall, hauling her into her arms. Aline pointed her towards the shelter, and with the unconscious girl in her arms, Helen made her way to where Dr Bane and Dr Lightwood were still defending the entrance. 

Aline was not on her own for long, as Maia turned a corner and came into view. Behind her, Clary, Isabelle and a few other nurses, doctors and staff who Aline recognised were with her too. It was then Aline saw the wands brandished in every single one of their clutches, even the red-headed psychiatrist they all thought was innocently clueless all along. She looked absolutely fearless, and there was a glint in her eyes that made her look lethal in her entirety. 

Aline took a breath to absorb all that new information, as Maia spotted her and ran over, with the entire group of witches and wizards following closely. It was amazing but not at all surprising how Maia immediately stepped into the role of the leader she was born to be, the rest of them trusting her to know what to do. 

The chaos around them died down, as the last few creatures in sight disappeared with the swirls of magic that shot out from the Downworlders’ wands and the mundanes having all been ushered to safety in the shelter. 

Helen returned, and as Aline turned towards her, she could see the shadow of dark magic leaking out of Helen’s wand. Before she could react, a bolt of magic charged across the space between them, finding its way to Clary, but it fizzled and died out right before it hit her. Maia was stood in front of Clary protectively, her wand coming up to shield them both from Helen’s magic. She was about to return the attack, but Aline raised her wand and put herself between Aline and Maia, halting them all.

“What are you doing, Aline?” Maia asked, her teeth gritting in anger. 

“Helen is with us.” Aline said, making sure she was heard by every wizard and witch standing by around them. 

“Her magic is endarkened. Did you not see that?” Maia was unconvinced, her wand still held in its offensive position. 

“My magic is endarkened because I am a descendant of a wizards who practiced dark magic, but I am not like them.” Helen spoke up, stepping out from behind Aline and pointed at Clary. 

“You’re Morgenstern’s daughter.” Helen simply stated, glaring at the witch who had an impenetrable look of ferocity of her face.

“And just like you, my lineage do not define who I am.” Clary said. “I am Clarissa Fairchild, and Valentine Morgenstern is my birth father. He has plans to take me back under his wings and use my magic to make himself stronger, and to harness the ley line convergence that sits below this establishment. I came here to personally protect this place and its people from my father.” 

“And why should we trust you? And have you on our side?” A voice from outside of their circle said, and Aline turned to see Dr Alec Lightwood and Dr Magnus Bane walking towards them, presumably having made sure that the entrance to the shelter was well-guarded and safe. 

“Because I want Valentine stopped as much as you do. And this,” Clary replied, pausing to pull out a piece of paper from her white coat, “is the only thing that will take him down, once and for all.”

Magnus stepped forward, taking the paper and inspecting it. 

“It’s a spell that my mother wrote for me. Before Valentine murdered her.” Clary continued, and Aline saw as Maia took Clary’s hand in hers to offer some comfort. “This spell can destroy the root of the dark magical core that Valentine draws his powers from. And is the reason why he was bent on silencing her.” 

“Let’s continue somewhere else. The mundanes are probably scared and waiting for an explanation for all this madness right now.” Maia spoke with an authoritative voice, and the group of them listened, splitting up to the two shelters that were conjured at opposite wings of the ER. 

\-------------

Aline led the group of seven towards the portal, which revealed the shelter on its other side. All it took was a step across the rippling wave of the plane of air and they found themselves in a completely different space. The room resembled the waiting room of the hospital, just many times bigger and flooded with people. Some of them were seated and huddled together, as if they’ve just accepted their fate as captives, while some were pounding away at the walls, looking for give. Either way, there was an atmosphere of sheer chaos and panic that overwhelmed the room.

Maia took charge immediately with Alec standing by behind her, demanding the attention of the crowd and explaining to them as tactfully as they could that they were safe and protected and can leave as soon as the threat is eradicated. Aline followed Helen’s lead and went around checking on and tending to the people who were patients before. Isabelle and Magnus swirled their wands and muttered spells quietly under their breaths, widening the confines of the space Aline created to accommodate more mundanes if needed. 

The team worked as a unit like as if they have been preparing for this their whole lives, and even if they had been in a way, it still amazed Aline how she immediately felt a bond towards the other Downworlders the second they all revealed their identities. 

Aline looked over at Helen, who was clutching a dying patient’s hand in hers, and suddenly it was so obvious once she knew what she was looking for. The frown lines on the patient’s face eased away, and a look of peace and serenity took over. Helen laid the hand down as gently as she had picked it up, bringing the sheets over his head as a last mark of dignity. Aline felt a tear slid down her cheek as she realised that that was what Helen had been doing for her patients all along. For every single one that she couldn’t save, she would take their hand and ease their pain, removing every last bit of suffering and letting them pass on in a state of painlessness and calm. Magic worked a lot faster and more efficiently than mundane painkillers, but it had to be emotionally exhausting to be there for so many last breaths. 

There was a tug at her heart, an ache for the selfless woman she once thought of as cold and heartless. Blue eyes met brown ones when Helen looked up again, before she quickly looked away again and moved onto the next patient. 

\--------------

There was an increasing growl of endarkened energy that was seeping into the shelter, and in a breath, the Downworlders had their wands at the ready, glancing around the room to make sure that the others were standing by too. 

“Aline, Helen, you guys go and check on the outside. Magnus, Alec and Isabelle, reinforce the protective spells and make sure the mundanes are contained in them. Clary, you’re with me.” Maia commanded, and they sprung into action to follow her orders. 

Aline and Helen left the safety of the shelter, and held their wands in front of them as they crept around the destroyed remains of the ER, looking out for threats of dark magic.

"I'm sorry." Aline whispered under her breath. 

"For what?" 

"For thinking you were a bad person. You aren't." There was a short breath that was held between them.

"I don't blame you." Helen sighed. "With how I treated you, I never expected for you to ever want to talk to me again."

"All is forgiven." Aline replied, taking a few steps forward to check around a corner. 

"You forgave me just like that? Don't you wanna know why I treated you like that in the first place?" Aline tilted her head in response, telling Helen to go ahead with her explanation.

"I'm born of dark magical blood. I bring misfortune to anyone I get too close to." Helen stopped herself, as she searched her mind for the best way to say her next thought. 

"I like you, Aline. From the moment you walked into my ER, I knew you were someone who will one day have the power over my heart." Aline stopped walking, making Helen halt in her tracks too. 

"But I cannot let myself like you, or anyone else for that matter. Everyone I had loved in the past, they-" There was a lump in the throat Helen had to swallow past. "They perished. Because I am bad news, Aline. Darkness follows darkness, and after today, you have to promise me that you will stay away from me."

She wanted to say so many things, but nothing would come out. Aline felt as if the breath had been stolen from her lungs, and all she could do was stare in shock at the weight of the confession that Helen had just made. She so badly wanted to tell Helen of everything that had been bubbling inside her for so long, her admiration, that shy, nagging feeling of something that felt like love for her that had been there since the beginning. 

Aline wanted to grab her into her arms and destroy all those feelings of unworthiness and self-hatred that seemed to plagued her, and wanted her to believe that she deserves love too. This woman, who despite the aid of her magic was an excellent doctor, a compassionate person who gave every bit of herself to help people she didn't even know. She, who would rather be seen as cold, aloof and unkind person, rather than let there even be an ounce of danger come to the people she wanted so badly to care for. 

"I can't do that, Helen, because I-" She didn't get to finish her sentence. One moment Helen was in front of her and the next, Helen shoved her to the ground harshly as two figures that seemed to appear out of nowhere stood in her place. She watched as Helen cast black-red magic out of her wand at one of them and then used the wand as a spear for the other. 

And then her world stopped short when she watched the wand fall onto the ground with a thud, and Helen dropped to her knees, clutching onto her chest in pain. 

Aline was by her side in a second, looking in horror as blood spilled from the wound, dangerously close to Helen's heart. There were the trademark black veins of endarkened magic that crept along the wound, which meant that the magic was slowly sucking away at Helen's life force. 

"No, no, please!" Aline stuttered as she caught Helen in her arms, Helen's eyes falling shut. The tears from her own eyes fell onto Helen's pale cheeks, and grabbing both their wands in one hand, Aline picked Helen up, determined as ever as she made a beeline to the invisible entrance of their shelter. 

Along the way, the creatures that even tried to get close to them would drop from the air, at the spells that were uttered like commands from Aline's mouth. In that moment, no one could stop her as she carried the injured witch through the messy remains of the ER and into the shelter. 

As she stepped past the swirling entrance, she ignored the stunned gasps of the people who saw them, and headed right for the first clearing of space she could find. She laid Helen down gently, before lifting her wand and focusing all the healing magic she could at it. She felt a few other witches sit down by her side, ready to help at any moment. 

Aline closed her eyes in concentration, squeezing the tears away and willing herself the strength to see this spell through. The tip of her wand landed softly on the darkening wound on Helen's chest, and soon the magic that Aline harnessed flowed out of the wand, and seemed to light her up from within.

The other witches and wizards gathered around watched in amazement as Aline poured her soul into the magic, the wound slowly sealing to a close, the dark magic detaching itself from the wound in crystalline, solid droplets and vaporising into thin air. 

Aline ended the spell, and her wand dropped from her clutch in her exhaustion. Maia was right there to catch her, and she watched as Helen's chest began rising up and down again. The tears that left her eyes were now tears of relief, and the crowd that had gathered around them dispersed once it was clear Aline had the situation under control. 

Helen's eyelids fluttered, and then her blue eyes revealed themselves and searched around until they landed on Aline's tear-filled ones. Aline placed a hand on Helen's lower back, carefully helping her sit up, before bringing her hand up and resting it against her neck. 

"All those people you had to watch die, it wasn't because of you." There was so much that Aline hoped to convey in her little touch of Helen's cheek, that she couldn't yet bare to say out loud.

"I wouldn't be alive right now if it weren't for you, Helen." Aline continued, letting her thumb brush over the other girl's lip to stop the denial before it even left her mouth. 

"I like you too. Very much so." Aline whispered, her head coming to rest softly on Helen's temple. "I liked you, and the only thing holding me back was how much I was convinced you didn't feel the same, and the fact that mundanes and witches could never be." 

She leaned back, turning Helen's head so that their gazes met. 

"So can we both please, give us a chance?" 

And then there were lips on hers, and her hands went to Helen's waist as Helen scrambled onto her knees to kiss her better. The air surrounding them sparked with energy, as the cores of two opposite souls spun around themselves and coiled in reunion. They came apart for air, their foreheads still resting in a light touch against each others'. Their magic simmered and fizzled to a calm, with each other having a newfound reason to fight and protect, they rose to their feet, hand in hand, ready to join back the battle. 

\--------------------

As Helen launched magic out of her wand this time, she found the bolts of magic to be more red than black. Aline noticed too, still casting spells at the creatures whilst watching Helen intently. 

Helen quickly slashes a small gash on her arm, before aiming her wand at the fresh wound. She watched in awe as the red magic sealed the wound, leaving but a faint scar on her arm. Helen had never done that before. Her blood was of endarkened origins. She was only ever meant to destroy and attack, never to heal. 

Her excitement had to wait, and with one last soft smile at Aline she went right back into fighting.

\--------------------

It didn't take long before they found the others, fighting their way to where Valentine Morgenstern was standing, holding Clary in the air by a tendril of dark magic around her neck. There was an almost imperceptible shield that surrounded the two of them, that undoubtedly stopped any of them from directing an attack on him from where they stood.

Aline caught sight of Maia, who was ferociously slicing down the endarkened creatures with her wand slashing across the air sending magic radiating in every direction. Maia moved like a bolt of magic herself, her vision tunneled in on her target a few feet away from her. The rest of them helped by covering her, taking down the creatures that were headed for her. 

There was barely a jump-worth of distance between them, before Maia shouted, the words clearly a spell of some kind. The moment the tip of her wand touched the barely visible shield, it materialised into a frosted glass-like done before shattering, shards of the magical seal littering the ground around them.

The wand in Maia hands was tossed into the air, and Clary caught it with the hand that was dangling behind her. She brought that hand above her head, brandishing the wand like a knife, before saying the very words on that slip of paper her mother left her, and plunged the wand into her father's heart. 

A blinding white light filled the space, radiating from the point in which the wand met the dark wizard's heart. His entire being seared out of existence, disappearing once and for all like the spell promised. Clary collapsed onto the ground below, before being thrust into a warm embrace in Maia's arms. 

The other Downworlders watched on happily, as Clary and Maia claimed their happy ending in a blissful kiss. 

The ruins of the mundane hospital scattered around them, the burning smell of magic crackling through the air still lingered, but they had each other, their newfound family, and they felt invincible.


End file.
